The invention relates to an elevator installation with an elevator car that is arranged movably in an elevator hoistway between floors, the elevator car having a car door, and/or the elevator hoistway having on the floors a hoistway door. Assigned to the car door or hoistway door is a sill-section. The invention also relates to a method of indicating a gap between an elevator car and a floor in an elevator installation, the elevator car being moved in an elevator hoistway between floors.
Modern elevators have a hoistway door and a car door. The hoistway door closes the elevator hoistway on the respective floors when no elevator car is present on this floor. The hoistway door is opened when the elevator car stops at a floor for passengers to enter and leave. The elevator car is closed by an elevator door. While the elevator car is moving in the elevator hoistway, this elevator door is closed. For entering and leaving on a floor, the elevator door is opened. The hoistway door or car door is often executed with two parts, and consists essentially of two door panels, of which a first door panel is guided to approximately the middle of a door opening, and a second door panel closes the remaining open half of a door opening. Irrespective of the execution, the hoistway door, or car door, is guided at least in a floor area of the floor, or of the elevator car, in a sill-section. The sill-section is usually made of aluminum. Despite high accuracy of manufacture, when the elevator car stops, a gap remains between the elevator car and the respective floor. With regard to injury of persons, this gap is mostly not dangerous. It is, however, possible for objects to fall into this gap. Furthermore, should there be a fault in the functioning of the elevator installation, it is possible for there to be a difference in level between the height of the floor and the height of the elevator car which can form a dangerous ledge, or step, that can cause injuries to persons entering or leaving.
From JP 04235886 an elevator installation is known that has a sill-section in the floor and a sill-section in the elevator car floor. Arranged on the elevator car door is an outward-projecting plastic cap. Installed below the plastic cap is a light source that, through a slit of the plastic cap, emits light that is visible to entering and leaving passengers.
In present-day elevator installations, such an arrangement is no longer possible, since the gap between the level of the floor and the elevator car does not allow the installation of additional elements. Typically, the gap is 1 cm wide. The available space is therefore greatly restricted and the sill-section of the elevator car is correspondingly narrowly constructed. Furthermore, the slit in the plastic cap through which the light emerges can become soiled—since elevator users tread on this plastic cap—which causes the warning of occurrence of a difference in level to be no longer perceptible, and thus useless, so that a safety risk arises.